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The world of watch making is often a race to achieve the most complicated and the most remarkable timepieces of all time. Here are some of the record breakers from the SIHH 2018, taking place in Geneva this week

Words:
Jacquie Myburgh Chemaly

IWC

IWC Schaffhausen unveiled five limited-edition Portugieser wristwatches at the as part of the Jubilee collection to celebrate the company’s 150th anniversary. The Portugieser Constant-Force Tourbillon Edition 150 Years is one of the most technically sophisticated watches in the collection and combines a constant-force tourbillon with a simple moon phase display for the very first time.

PIAGET

At a mere 4,3mm thick, the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Automatic is the world’s slimmest self-winding watch. To achieve this new thinness record, the Piaget Alitplano is designed as an inseparable mechanism: The movement and the case form a single entity, with the case serving as a main plate to which 219 incredibly thin components are affixed. Some of the parts are barely thicker than a hair’s breadth, including certain wheels measuring just 0.12 mm thick (compared with 0.20 mm on a traditional movement).

JAEGER-LECOULTRE

At Jaeger-LeCoultre, the Polaris Chronograph World Time offers it all: An in-house chronograph as well as a world time complication - perfect for the world traveler. It not only features the two chronograph pushers, but it has an additional crown at 10 o’clock to control the rotating city disc, which you can set to the city you are in, and immediately see the time in 23 other cities around the world.

World time watches can be a struggle to read, but this one is a generous 44mm, to enhance readability. The watch is less than 13mm thick and the case is titanium.

Jaeger-LeCoultre, the Polaris Chronograph World Time
Image:
Supplied

VACHERON CONSTANTIN

At Vacheron Constantin, the Métiers d’Art Les Aérostiers collection pays tribute to the exhilarating era of hot air balloon flight experimentation in the late 18th century with a limited edition collection that are more works of art than timepieces.

On the miniature scale of a watch dial, the master engravers of Vacheron Constantin have reproduced historical depictions of five flights undertaken in France between 1783 and 1785. Hand-engraved and micro-sculpted gold hot-air balloons hover against a translucent enamel background. The time is displayed using a unique mechanism of discs driving special displays through windows at the top and the bottom of the watch dial.

MONTBLANC

At Montblanc, the moody moss green 1858 Monopusher Chronograph Limited Edition is part of a new vintage-inspired collection but stands apart because of its remarkable complications.

The dial features a small second counter at nine o'clock, a chronograph 30-minute counter at three o'clock and a tachymeter scale on the outer part of the dial.

With a 40 mm stainless steel case, it has an original smoked green dial and matching green alligator strap with beige stitching that comes from the Montblanc Pelletteria in Florence.